


the slow dance of the infinite stars

by AssumingMinds19



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Destiny, Except it's first person, F/F, First Meetings, Kinda, Light Angst, Meet-Cute, POV First Person, POV Third Person Omniscient, Romance, Romantic Soulmates, Slightly Clueless God, Soulmates, narrated
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-09-17 00:34:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16964430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AssumingMinds19/pseuds/AssumingMinds19
Summary: A soulmate fic, where the person in charge of the universe doesn’t believe in soulmates.Every action we make, every path we turn to tread on, changes the course of our lives and created a series of ripples that lead you on to your next step. In the whole entirety of the universe, it is ridiculous to assume two people are destined to meet.Until it becomes far too annoying that they aren’t.A series of missed meet cutes between Kara and Lena, all narrated by a greater consciousness that is starting to questions it’s own beliefs on destiny, while increasingly given little nudges to set things in motion between them.





	1. A Moment Of Hesitation

**Author's Note:**

> This entire work was sorta inspired by Stardust, a phenomenal book by one of my favourite authors Neil Gaimon. Give him a read if you haven't already.
> 
> If you like the fic, feel free to check out my other works or follow me on Tumblr at this link.
> 
> https://assumingminds19.tumblr.com/
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that no single being in existence has ever gotten to wherever they're going without making a series of choices to lead them there. 

 

It is hubris to think otherwise. That somehow people have a single destination in life, no matter what they do in it. Some people would like to believe that nothing happens by accident, that the people we meet and who touch our lives were always meant to do so.

 

Myths are compost. They begin as religions, the most deeply held of beliefs, or as the stories that accrete to religions as they grow.

 

There was a theory on Krypton, eons ago before the matrix and the worship of Rao rooted itself into the planet, that people were in charge of their own destiny. Except for one thing single thing, that in every universe and throughout the multiverse, every soul had a pair. Not to be predetermined by a computer or code, but by something deeper and far more intuitive. 

 

A deep instinct, calling out from across the stars and suns and planets, that there was a reflection of themselves. And no matter how far away, even in another dimension, they would always be destined to find each other. 

 

Of course, this was all debunked once actual science took hold of the teachings on Krypton. And if wasn’t for their silly insistence that the sun their planet orbited was somehow a god of light and life, rather than simply a red supergiant, I would have considered them one of the more advanced civilisations of their universe.

 

Given maybe another millennium, perhaps they would have grown clever enough to even learn of _my_ existence, but that is neither here or there. My attention had lingered long enough on the planet and it’s people to watch as they slowly ate away at its core. I observed as a lush garden world was ravaged by pain and war and burned and blasted until it had destroyed nearly of its heart. 

 

Technology was thought near God then and the people isolated themselves into separate citadels, shunning personal contact and physical touch, except within families.

 

And even then it was frowned upon. 

 

Birth was determined by the matrix, intent on finding only the perfect genetic match. 

 

And so, the time of looking beyond the stars and questioning their souls was done. 

 

But the perfection the Kryptonians sought, was not to last. Their planet’s core was increasingly unstable, and instead of heeding the warnings of their people, the council refused to act. 

 

That was when the House of El drew my attention. 

 

A baby, wrapped in a blanket sent inside a pod and to a planet far away, where the people touched and cared and bleed for each other. Vibrant in life, love and emotion both good and bad. Instead of the indifference that led Krypton to die. 

 

Maybe I should have let my gaze follow the infant’s journey, but my mind stopped and hovered over a second choice.

 

Some would call it fate, but it wasn’t destiny that led to my choice. Rather the simple act of a parent drawing in their daughter for a hug.

 

She was to be sent to look after her younger cousin, the infant Kal-El who had already been launched into the vast region of space. Her mother spoke to her of the deep sleep she would face in her journey, of the powers she would gain under the sky of this new planet. That she would do extraordinary things.

 

The girl was afraid she would fail.

 

“I love you, Kara.”

 

And there it was, a single moment of pure grief and love that I had long thought lost to this world.

 

It…. _intrigued_ me.

 

But things didn’t go according to plan. 

 

The planet’s destruction sent a shock wave that knocked the girl’s pod off course and into the Phantom Zone. A region of space that I had often frequented, floating in and out on a whim. For time did not pass there in the same way, it did not pass for me.

 

My interest immediately wained for the life inside the pod, destined as it was to float forever and endlessly. But before my consciousness could withdraw completely, to find some other anomaly in the universe to retain my interest...I felt it.

 

The shockwave that had hit the pod, was also preventing the being inside to sleep as she was told. I could feel her panic, the idea of spending an eternity never ageing, never growing, never sleeping all the while they spun in an endless void would lead to unimaginable pain, loneliness, disinterest until finally the memory of who they once were, would cease to exist at all.

 

In short, the young girl was destined to become like me.

 

So I did the one thing I had sworn not to since the dawn of time and creation.

 

I felt _sad_.

 

And then I reached out a single thought to the onboard computer and sent the girl to sleep.

 

Time had little meaning to me, the entire existence of Krypton having been a mere blink in an eye, but for some reason, I couldn’t help but linger over this single and unimportant pod. 

 

I saw how Argo survived the destruction, clinging onto life. I saw the prison Fort Rozz, that had been sent into the Phantom Zone, floating aimlessly past. But none of that mattered the way this one girl did.

 

I had danced amongst the stars for as long as stars had been. I had seen the rise and fall of entire galaxies. I had watched life grow and question and learn and die.

 

But I'd never seen a single golden thread before.

 

I played with it while she floated in silent sleep, tugging at it, and as it grew clearer and stronger, I wanted to play with it more to see where it lead. It floated for a while too, until one day or week or second or year, it snapped taught like a wire. All in the direction I knew the infant’s pod had gone. 

 

In the direction of Earth.

 

What could this mean? That one single, lonely thread bound so tightly and rigidly in one direction must mean something, but for my entire consciousness, I could not understand it.

 

And this _annoyed_ me.

 

I was supposed to know the answer to everything, to all the questions that time had to offer and yet I could not understand this.

 

So I watched as the pod and the prison floated in tandem in never-ending space and I decided to do something about it once more.

 

I gave the strings of the universe a little nudge. 

 

The Coluan took over the pod briefly and the prison’s engines activated, sending things into motion that would change the fate of an entire planet.

 

Did I say fate? I meant, direction.

 

The pod finally exited the Phantom Zone, sending the prison along with it and when it finally landed the infant that the girl had been sent to look after had grown to a man of, what Earth would consider, was an extraordinary being. 

 

Maybe Earth should have interested me, maybe I should have been more observant of this planet I had only inspected it in the passing before, but now I was focused instead on the single glowing, golden thread that finally lay flat and reached out across the land.

 

And by across the land, it really reached out ten miles to the north to another town filled with large houses and, what I now know, wealthy people on summer vacations. 

 

On a set of stairs leading to the beach from the largest house of all, sat a small dark-haired girl, reading a book.

 

The other end of the golden thread. 

 

An older boy, a young man really, walked out to sit next to the girl, reaching for the book and asking her permission. The girl gave it easily, the adoration she felt for the boy rolling off with her every action towards him.

 

He looked down at the cover and smiled.

 

“Stardust,” he read aloud, before handing the book back. “I didn’t know you were a Neil Gaiman fan, Lena.”

 

She shrugged lightly.

 

“I know mother would prefer I read more classic literature, but I like his prose,” she said melodiously.

 

The young man nodded, looking out at the vastness of the ocean before speaking in a distracted voice.

 

“A philosopher once asked, are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at them because we are human? Pointless, really…”

 

"Do the stars gaze back? now, that's a question,” the girl called Lena finished, glowing like a star herself when the boy turned his gaze back down to her and smiled.

 

“True poetry, Lena, is great no matter if the source is Ulysses or Stardust,” he murmured, before pulling her towards him with a tight one-armed hug.

 

A small passage of time passed, both of them staring out over the glittering blue of the ocean and waves before the man finally spoke in a low and worried voice.

 

“Are you happy here? With just me?” He asked, dropping his arm from her shoulders. “I thought it might be nice to spend some time near the sea, just us two before I went back to college. A chance to give us both a…. break.”

 

The last word was broken and spoke of pain and betrayal and loss. Something that no near child should ever know. It spoke of a knowledge of the harsh nature of the universe, that nobody should be exposed to except for me.

 

These mere mortals did not deserve the pain.

 

That confused me, I’d never felt _sympathy_ before.

 

Until I saw that girl in the pod.

 

The girl with the book reached out with her hand, touching the man’s arm lightly and giving him a smile.

 

“This is the happiest I can remember being, Lex. In my entire life.”

 

The words rang true and clear but filled with emotion I had long since forgotten mortal’s possessed. I was far too accustomed to the distance and apathy of Krypton.

 

The man didn’t smile, but I could tell he was pleased and embarrassed by her words.

 

“Well… that’s good.”

 

They both turned back in silence to face the ocean once more, the girl’s eyes slowly turning up to look at the cloudless blue sky while she turned the book in her hands.

 

“Do you ever wonder, about the infinity of the universe?” She suddenly asked her brother. “About aliens and stars and planets that we could never even imagine? Do you ever wonder if they stare back at us?”

 

The man let out a bitter laugh at her words, making Lena frown.

 

“If they do, they do it laughing,” he scoffed darkly. “Humanity is failing itself. The way we’re destroying the planet with little cause. The aliens that wreak destruction, all while we do nothing. The threat is growing and we do _nothing_.”

 

He slammed his hand against the wooden step, sending vibrations hard enough to loosen the nails. Lena watched him with concern as his face twisted with enough rage to make his handsome features turn ugly.

 

“I didn’t mean to make you angry, Lex,” she said quietly.

 

At her words, his foul face immediately morphed into sorrowful and he gave her a strained smile.

 

“I’m not… I’m not angry. Not at you, anyway,” he breathed out with a sigh. “I’m just frustrated.”

 

He pinched the bridge of his nose, before continuing.

 

“When I take over the company I plan to do something about all of this. Instead of just buying up more stock and exploiting oil fields. The power I could hold is…. and then I could actually help.”

 

His mouth twisted once more and his eyes flickered with something bordering on madness.

 

“Then maybe,” he hissed out. “People we see that we don’t need aliens in tights to help us solve the problems they help create. That humans can stand on their own and win.”

 

Lena didn’t respond, instead, she looked pondering out at the sky once more. 

 

“I like Superman,” she said simply.

 

The man’s face flickered with something before it hardened into a calm mask. 

 

“You do? Why?” He demanded, more than asked,

 

The girl with the book shrugged but answered him thoughtfully.

 

“I think he helps people. It’s nice when people just want to help people.”

 

Lex didn’t look satisfied by her answer, so she nudged him with her shoulder and grinned.

 

“I like him for the same reasons I like you. Maybe you should work with Superman. Together you could bring aliens and humans together.”

 

Lex gave her a wondering look, searching her eyes as his thoughts clearly raced.

 

“You think I can work with someone who hides who they really are?” He asked curiously. “So they never have to face total transparency for their actions.”

 

Lena bit her lip but answered him anyway.

  
“Maybe he’s just protecting the people he loves,” she whispered out. “Keeping them safe from harm. If people knew who he truly was, they would never stop trying to hurt him through them. Wouldn’t you do the same for me if you were a superhero?”

 

He watched her seriously, but his face cracked with a wide grin and he shook his head.

 

“I wouldn’t dare try,” he said with a laugh. “If I did, you would kick me. No woman needs to stand behind a man to make him great, Lena. You’re great all by yourself and that light should never be dimmed by me in any way. You’re a Luthor, but far more importantly, you’re Lena. And don’t kid yourself, between the two of us you're the one destined to be a hero, not me.”

 

She flushed at his praise, looking down at her toes before reaching out her smaller hand to hold his larger one. The man didn’t hesitate, happily holding it tightly and silently for almost fifteen minutes until she spoke once more.

 

“I think they must be lonely up there,” Lena whispered, looking once more to the sky. “Floating so high, burning so bright and shining greater than anything in the world, but it must be lonely for the stars.”

 

The words echoed through my mind, and I wondered for a second if perhaps she was speaking to me.

 

Was I _lonely?_

 

“They have each other,” Lex said in return.

 

Her lips pursed. 

 

“Not really. There’s more empty space between them than anything else,” she muttered out, pulling her hand away, but he followed it and wrapped her in a hug once more.

 

“Well, if I can promise you one thing it’s that there will never be empty space between us,” he said firmly.

 

The girl with the book smiled softly at that, but I could almost feel her lonely heart sing.

 

“Do we have to go back tomorrow?” She asked.

 

He gave her a despondent look.

 

“I’m afraid so. Dad is… well. I could maybe stretch it another day if you like? We could go to Midvale, I hear they have a cool ice-cream parlour. We could get some and then go to the beach?”

 

She wanted to say yes, I could tell. The golden thread shined brighter than ever before it dimmed and almost disappeared.

 

“No, that’s ok,” she sighed out. “I don’t want you to get in trouble with Dad. Besides, I have an invention to show you when we get back.”

 

He grinned at her, his eyes sparkling with mischief before he leapt to his feet.

 

“Will it explode again?”

 

She scowled and scrambled after him.

 

“That happened one time, Lex!”

 

It _annoyed_ me, watching the girl run after her brother and back into the house, every second of time making the thread dimmer and dimmer until it almost didn’t exist at all.

 

I followed the human for a time, trying to discover what exactly the thread was trying to tell me. What linked her to the Kryptonian I had spent years observing? 

 

What made her special and different in this grand scheme of time?

 

It was easy to see the darkness lingering in her actions and movements, everything she did and every step she took seemed to walk the line of two paths. Sometimes, the golden thread would light up over the simplest of things. Like whether she forgot her coat that day and went back to get it, or if the chauffeur picking her up had a final cigarette. And sometimes the thread dimmed into a soft plain light because the phone had rung and she talked for a couple of minutes.

 

More often than not the thread would agitatedly flicker during dinner time, as Lena and Lex sat with their parents whose anger rolled off them and infected everyone there. Sometimes, in the midst of an argument, it looked like the thread was going to snap altogether. 

 

But at night, when Lena lay silently in her bed and stared at the ceiling, the golden line almost vanished from sight.

 

And I couldn’t help it, I nudged once more.

 

As soon as the girl was given permission to mourn the family she had, crying silent tears into her pillow, the line came back ever stronger. As if it was there to keep her warm and comfort her in a way I never could.

 

An eon of existence, and I finally felt a desire to _protect_. 

 

First the girl in the pod, and now the girl with the book.

 

Things with Lena seemed to take a dark turn, but the golden thread held like a beacon throughout growing brighter and brighter every day, even as she grew sadder and sadder. 

 

It made me wonder if only one thing had happened differently… if there hadn’t been an argument, if the phone had rung at a different time, if the girl with the book had never gone with her brother to a house on a beach, near where the girl from the pod was told to live.

 

If the pod had never been knocked off course if I hadn’t nudged it. 

 

If Krypton had never exploded, if the people had taken better care…  
  


 

Would the thread I was so fascinated with exist at all?

 

But life being what it is, a series of intercepting lives and incidents out of anyone’s control. The arguments did occur, the phone call had happened and Lena had been at the beach with her brother. The girl from the pod had moved to Midvale to stay, whose pod had been knocked off course and whose planet had died. 

 

So the thread, of course, existed.

 

After all, I knew there was no such thing as destiny.

 

* * *

 

A few years passed and the girl with a book was due to go back to school in another country in a far off place when the thread began to jerk and dance in a way it never had before. And this time, all the dark-haired girl was doing was reading in an empty and sad house all alone.

 

Time had always passed so easily, it wasn’t unusual for me to get distracted. But I found it bewildering that I had gotten so consumed in one tiny spark of a being’s life that I forgot entirely about who was on the other end of the line.

 

So I traced the golden thread all the way back to Midvale, leaving a foot in the door as it were with Lena.

 

I found the vibrating golden thread landed on the young girl from the pod, looking older and more tired than ever, and still so lost. Sitting on the roof of her house with a redheaded girl next to her holding her in a one-armed embrace.

 

“It’ll be ok, she’ll come around. She’s just worried after everything that’s happened around here,” the redhead whispered.

 

I could see another mortal, sitting at a table in the kitchen, surrounded by papers she was reading with concentration.

 

Was this the thing making the bond flicker?

 

“I can’t go somewhere else where I don’t know anyone, Alex,” the girl in the pod replied in a terrified voice. “I can’t I…. I just began to feel at home here.”

 

The redheaded girl’s face flashed with grief, an emotion she clearly knew well for someone so young. It made me wonder again at the cruelty of the universe I called mine.

 

“She’s just… she just thinks this might be better for you,” Alex said in a brave voice. “To be somewhere you can really expand your mind so that you don’t try to… you know…”

 

Kara sniffed, clearly holding back tears.

 

“Expand my powers?”

 

The redhead sniffed as well but rubbed her eyes furiously, before she replied in a gruff and firm voice.

 

“Yeah.” 

 

A silence grew, broken only by the small sound of waves crashing before Alex sighed and spoke again.

 

“Look, I read the brochures for the school and looked it up online,” she began in an overly bright voice. “It’s pretty incredible. Only the best of the best in the world can go there unless they’re loaded to the nines. At it’s in Europe, that’s pretty cool.”

 

Kara didn’t seem impressed.

 

“If I wanted to go to Europe, I’d just fly there,” she muttered out.

 

Alex looked disappointed.

 

“I’m just saying that-“

 

The girl in the pod cut her off.

 

“I don’t care what you’re saying,” she said bitterly. “I don’t care if this school challenges me academically or if it helps me focus more. I don’t want to go. Why doesn’t she care about what I want?”

 

The other girl’s heart seemed to lurch in her chest at the words.

 

“Of course she cares about what you want, but Mom is… she’s… doing her best for you.”

 

She said the words like she believed that they applied to Kara, not to her.

 

The blonde’s face flashed with concern and sadness as she reached out the take Alex’s hand in hers.

 

“It was good to have someone else on the outside with me. I’d rather be human than risk losing you.”

 

Alex’s eyes filled with tears at the simple sincerity.

 

“No matter where you are, Kara. I will always be your sister.’’

 

The girls hugged and the golden thread’s vibration suddenly stopped and settled. My gaze turned back to the older woman in the kitchen, no longer looking through the papers on the kitchen table but sweeping them into the trash.

 

My gaze lingered on the photo on one of them, recognising with a start that it was the same school that Lena attended.

 

That was when things started to get interesting.

 

* * *

 

When Kara was in her final year of high school, her cousin invited her to stay one summer. Keeping a vague eye on both Superman and Lex accordingly, given their proximity in the lives of the pod girl and the book girl, I was intrigued to see that they had grown close themselves. Forming a bond and friendship as both Lex Luthor, CEO and Superman as well as Clark Kent and plain old Lex.

 

Things between them were twisted, between the double lives both of them led and the lingering character faults that both of them wore like armour. Clark, in his belief of a better humanity, but unable to care for his only Kryptonian relative.

 

And Lex, with his secret experiments and growing madness.

 

Kara did end up visiting her cousin, the second the choice was made the golden thread growing taut. I realised that for the first time since the pod girl had landed, that she and the book girl would be in the same area at the same time. 

 

The same city in fact.

 

And like so many firsts since Krypton had died, I became _excited_.

 

I wasn’t used to the feeling

 

The second Kara’s plane landed, at her cousin’s insistence when she wanted to fly herself, the cord positively hummed with energy. Practically radiating the possibility that something was about to happen. Something big that would change everything.

 

I jumped back and forth between the two ends, checking to see that the cord from both was growing thicker and stronger with each passing day. 

 

Lena was back from boarding school and spending her days reading or tinkering in her lab. Occasionally, Lex would take her to LuthorCorp to see the latest projects and developments.

 

As for the pod girl, she spent her time with Clark as he took her to different museums, galleries, aquariums and zoos. But I could tell she was never fully content, especially when he left for his day job, leaving her to wander the city on her own. Worse was when he left for his ‘other’ job, and Kara was left watching enviously as he saved people and lifted fallen cranes.

 

After the third time, she stopped going out.

 

Her cousin seemed to pick up on this, taking more time off so he could spend his time with her.

 

But then one day, the cord doubled in size.

 

Clark told a sleepy Kara at breakfast, that unfortunately, he had an interview that day that he had to go to.

 

With Lex Luthor. 

 

The golden rope wavered for half a second before snapping tight once more.

 

“Can I come? I can just, you know, hang out in the lobby or something…”

 

The man had smiled and told she could come along for the interview itself, that Lex always liked to show off his new toys to eager eyes. 

 

I flitted back to Lena then, confirming that she was going to be working in the labs at the company today. 

 

This was it, I thought _eagerly_. This was the day that everything I had been waiting for would happen.

 

Whatever it was, I had no idea, but I was desperate to find out.

 

Everything was going well until it all went to hell.

 

Lex had greeted them warmly, shaking both Clark and Kara’s hand with a charming grin, ready and willing to show them around. The dark-haired man had asked a series of questions, Kara occasionally perking up and adding commentary that Lex took just as seriously as the established journalist's. 

 

All the while, Lena poured chemical solutions into glasses thirty floors below.

 

Then, the cord dwindled down to a single thread again with one text message.

 

Lex picked it up and immediately the room’s good mood vanished.

 

The bald man excused himself, all but demanding that the other pair leave as he had a situation to deal with.

 

And that was that. 

 

Kara and Lena finished their respective summers and then headed back to school.

 

I was the most _disappointed_ I had ever been.

 

Things just kept getting worse after that. 

 

Both Lena and Kara graduated their respective high schools, in the brunette’s case early, and headed off to college. 

 

On the opposite sides of the country.

 

For the first time that I had observed, Lena’s life was becoming better even as Kara’s drifted into uncertainty.

 

The book girl had found love with a dark-haired man and was excelling in every aspect of her life.

 

But Kara was….adrift.

Years passed as they always did, and my eyes wandered from each girl as they grew into young women. Watching as their personalities formed and solidified, carrying the weight of both their worlds on their backs as they struggled to define themselves. 

 

I had always watched people, millions and millions of people. In the time before time, my brethren would mock me for it. Why would I watch genetic anomalies trying to find existence in their brief and mortal lives when the galaxy had so much to offer. But my kin were all gone now, lost in reaches of time and space and memory that even I dared not cross.

 

And while I could watch the rise and fall of single stars, collapsing in on themselves and the creations of black holes, people always drew my eye. But never in the way these two had, with that dastardly golden thread that I failed to understand. It signified something important, that much I knew for certain. And it wasn’t just there to symbolise the connection between them, it was trying to tell me something too. Something was meant to happen, something was meant to be.

 

I had to chastise myself because I knew better than to think so whimsically. Nothing is set and the only destiny that exists is the one we make ourselves. Never in all my existence had anything that had occurred been explained by fate.

 

Only science, reason and chance. 

 

But my mind grappled with a new feeling of _impatience_. A lifetime of a lifetime and I wanted nothing more than to see what would happen when the ends of this thread would meet. Every time a choice was made that could lead to that, the thread glowed and every time a step backwards was taken, it died a little.

 

It was like a dance, a long cruel dance sent to test my patience and I couldn’t help myself.

 

I began to interfere once more.

 

* * *

 

 

First, it had been easy, a nudge of a professor's mind, a shuffling of paperwork rearranged and a slight push at a jobs fair until Kara Danvers got accepted for a semesters study at MIT. I could tell she was confused, she was studying marketing after all but took it in her stride. Eager to use her Kryptonian mathematical and science skills and stretch them out in a way she hadn’t been able to in a long while. 

 

Satisfied with my work, I took a step back to observe once more. I was _confident_ that now that the two ends of the thread, closer than they had been since the pod girl first arrived, would find each other now that they attended the same school.

 

But, I was _disappointed_.

 

The Luthor girl spent more time in her labs with her boyfriend, or in her off-campus apartment… also with her boyfriend, then at the campus. Kara spent her time exploring the city, not attending her lectures and acing her exams without even studying for them. 

 

It was  _irritating_.

 

Destiny doesn’t exist, but I knew that something was supposed to happen. Like a planet around a sun, or a moon around a planet the thread was supposed to fall into alignment and balance. But the colour never changed then, it never so much as moved at all.

 

It was if the galaxy was mocking my attempt.

 

And so the semester passed, and nothing happened. Kara went back to National City and Lena continued to spend time with the man that I found increasingly _annoying_. 

 

He was good to her, better than anyone had ever been, save her brother. But I found his very existence _irritating_. The bond between them was strong, but it didn’t blaze the same way the golden thread did between her and the pod girl. 

 

It wasn’t the way things supposed to be, but at least the book girl was happy.

 

Until she wasn’t.

 

Her brother, who had once comforted her so warmly had fallen down the pathway of madness, something that I had seen so many times before. He had a clash with Superman that sent ripples through the universe as a boulder dropped in a lake.

 

Many things hinged on it, and I knew this would change the course of life for the entire world if not the entire galaxy, but my eyes remained fixed on only one thing.

 

Could it be too much of a coincidence that the family of both my girls on the ends of the thread were brought together in such a fiery explosion of time? Or was this something more.

 

Was this whole endeavour something the universe was trying to tell me?

 

Whatever the case, the second the brother had been stopped by the cousin, the thread burned white hot.

 

White hot with so much emotion, I couldn’t fathom how the humans couldn’t see it. 

 

Things in Lena’s life began to fracture. Lex’s trial and subsequent life sentences, coupled with the hate of the public for anyone bearing the Luthor name and the knowledge that she was now in sole control of LuthorCorp, was beginning to fray her edges.

 

I wanted to make her see that all wasn’t lost in her life, that there was a golden foundation leading to a future so bright it would outshine the sun. 

 

That there was someone waiting for her.

 

Then came another turning point, where the cord began to waver and flicker.

 

Her boyfriend asked her to turn her back on her family's company and stay with him to develop something new and exciting.

 

And she was considering it.

 

I couldn’t take it anymore. 

 

I’d had enough of mortal flippancies changing the natural course of things. Lena wasn’t meant to leave with Jack. She needed to meet Kara, just as Kara needed to meet her. Kara who complimented her so well, whose life had become so bright and extraordinary ever since she had unleashed her full potential and embraced all her powers. Becoming Supergirl and saving the world.

 

It was a pleasure to watch.

 

But as much as my heart swelled with _pride_ , another new feeling that I had never experienced before, my thoughts lingered more on Lena.

 

And her still unmade choice.

 

Clearly, these two idiots would never manage to get together on their own, and there was only one option left. 

 

I was the reason any of this had happened, after all. If I had never nudged that pod then none of this would be set in motion.

 

I was the reason this was happening, not destiny.

 

But if the universe was testing me for interfering with the lives of two mortals, what could one more nudge mean in the grand scheme of things?

 

* * *

 

I had never worn the body of a mortal before. 

 

I knew it was possible of course, but I had never been interested to try it. 

 

But one day, when I watched as an increasingly drunk Lena sat alone at a bar, dirty looks being thrown at her by the other patrons, I decided to act.

 

Extending my consciousness to the sole female bartender was easy, maintaining restraint to stop my mind from obliterating her’s from existence was harder. I wanted her to forget what was about to happen that night, not turn her into ash. A single sliver was enough, making her body rigid for half a millisecond before I finally saw reality through a mortal’s mind. My first thought was that everything was dull. Light, colours, sounds… everything was filtered into a darker setting than I ever considered possible. I adjusted quickly, rifling through the girl’s mind and memories quickly to get my bearings and turned to look at Lena for the first time.

 

She was beautiful and I felt a ping of the mortal’s attraction and lust, something that _amused_ me, but the ethereal glow that I had seen in my near omniscience still seemed to be radiating out of her with unnatural light. 

 

I felt _smug_ in my assurance that I had been right to do as I had been acting. For I knew that there was something different about my chosen pair.

 

But it wasn’t _fucking_ destiny.

 

A man, spitting with anger, walked up the clearly intoxicated Luthor and threw his drink in her face. 

 

“Fucking Luthor,” he hissed, before slamming his empty glass down on the bar and exiting the bar.

 

The other patrons didn’t react, except for a few satisfied nods. The book girl herself didn’t make a sound, just wiped the excess liquid out of her eyes.

 

“Here,” I said lowly, handing her a cloth napkin.

 

She looked up with a start, surprised by my sudden appearance and took the napkin cautiously, before wiping her face lightly.

 

“Thank you,” she said, still wary. “Most people couldn’t be paid enough to help a Luthor.”

 

I tilted the mortal’s head staring at her unblinkingly.

 

“What does your name have to do with needing help?”

 

Lena’s eyes turned even more suspicious.

 

“Don’t you know who I am?” She demanded, rather than asked.

 

I nodded in reply.

 

“Of course. Lena Luthor.”

 

Her eyes turned downwards.

 

“Then you know who my brother is…. and what he’s done,” she muttered to the bar.

 

Mortals. 

 

Always ruled by their hearts, rather than their heads.

 

“The way I see it,” I replied succinctly. Failing, as usual, to comprehend that mortals never used logic. “You have a choice to make.”

 

The girl with a book gave me a startled look.

 

“I do?”

 

I nodded once more, stretching the mortal’s face into what I hoped was a passable smile.

 

“Of course, isn’t that what life is? Just a series of choices and paths and consequences.”

 

Lena’s eyes narrowed.

 

“And what choices do I have?”

 

“You can reject everything and everyone, including your family name,” I rattled out.

 

She bit out a harsh laugh at that.

 

“Sounds like a good option.”

 

I continued, ignoring her interjection.

 

“You can follow your brother down his dark path.”

 

At that, she shook her head violently.

 

“Surely not.”

 

Even with my vast mind, I struggled with how to word what to say next.

 

“Or… you can take something that is broken and cold and twisted, and reinvent into something new and better. You could save the world.”

 

It echoed of words spoken long ago, at least in her mind. To me it was but a blink of an eye to the day she sat on the steps with her brother and overlooked the sea. It must have twigged something in her mind because her face flashed with a memory before she answered.

 

“Me? Save the world? I can’t even walk into a bar without getting a drink thrown on me.”

 

I grew annoyed once more, for with every self-deprecating answer I knew that the golden thread grew dimmer and dimmer. This wasn't the way things were supposed to be. How could she fail to see it when it was so clear to me?

 

Her and Kara, they had to meet. It was… not _destiny_ , but an event that had to happen to quench my own curiosity.

 

“Isn’t it time you stopped seeing yourself as a victim, Lena Luthor?” I replied, injecting just a tiny amount of my true self in my words, enough to tease the more ancient instincts in her brain. “You have the strength of steel in you and you can make a name for yourself outside of your family.”

 

It confused her, but she was in awe. Awe of what the words had shown her in her mind, painting a future that she could see was the same as the one I spoke of.

 

“You’re not an ordinary bartender, are you?” She asked, slightly afraid.

 

I withdrew my outwardly presence, until I seemed a normal human once more.

 

“Doesn’t mean I’m wrong either,” I said smiling, leaning in to emphasise my point. “You are capable of extraordinary things, don’t waste your life following someone else’s path even if it was the one you once journeyed on together.”

 

Don’t go with Jack, I wanted to scream. There is something else, someone else you’ve been connected to that spans a lifetime and a galaxy. A series of circumstances that led you here, so close to fulfilling something even I don't understand.

 

“Do I know you?” She asked head cocked. “You seem really familiar.”

 

I’ve watched over you for years, I wished to say. I’ve seen the course of your life, all the pain and anguish and I’ve placed it as paramount as the creation of stars in my mind. There is so much mystery I have already discovered, but I fail to understand the bond you share with another.

 

“No, you don’t know me,” I said insisted. “I try not to interfere in people’s lives, but I have a feeling that you’re special.”

 

I did not feel guilty for the lie, the universe’s consequences be damned.

 

Lena watched me, still confused in her haze of intoxication.

 

“What, like I was destined for greatness?” She snorted out.

 

I shrugged the mortal’s shoulders.

 

“You just might be,” I answered. “I’ve come to believe that anything in this life is possible.”

 

For a second, I saw in her eyes that she believed me. That she understood.

 

But it passed just as fast.

 

“Horrible, horrible things are possible,” she said darkly.

 

I didn’t know what to do, except manifesting myself physically in a way I’d never done before and transporting her to Kara’s side directly. If I hadn’t known it would rip a hole in the spacetime continuum, I would have done it.

 

Alas, I was left to search my knowledge for something else.

 

Something _human_.

 

“It’s not the stars that hold our destiny, but ourselves.”

 

Lena smiled at the words.

 

“William Shakespeare. You know your generic quotes.”

 

My eyes, wondering if I should risk it but decided I could.

 

What use was there in being an eternal entity if I could use my powers once in a while anyway?

 

“A cynic, huh? Well how about this one,” I answered. “A philosopher once asked, are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at them because we are human? Pointless, really…”

 

Her eyes had grown wide the second I started to speak the quote.

 

"Do the stars gaze back? now, that's a question,” she finished with a whisper and gave me an equally awed and horrified look, completely unable to comprehend all that I am.

 

“Stardust… That’s my favourite book.”

 

I smiled widely.

 

“It’s a good book.”

 

Lena’s head tilted.

 

“Are you sure we haven’t met before?”

 

I nodded.

 

“Positive.”

 

The girl with the book watched me briefly for a few more minutes, before sighing and staggering to her feet, texting her driver to get her.

 

“Well, whoever you are, thank you… I didn’t think anyone would ever want to talk to me again without spitting in my face.”

 

I shrugged at the words.

 

“Every good friend was once a stranger.”

 

Lena snorted, eyeing the mortal body up and down.

 

“Wow, you really are full of generic quotes,” she said dryly before making her way to the door.

 

I felt a flash of panic, then desperation, then inspiration. 

 

“National City,” I said loudly, drawing some other patrons attention.

 

The woman turned, confused.

 

“I’m sorry?” She asked.

 

I swallowed.  


 

“If you take over the company, and you want a fresh start…. National City.”

 

Lena gave another frightened look, no doubt wondering not for the first time that night, how a mere bartender could know all that I know.

 

“Home of Supergirl?” She asked incredulously. “My family already has enough bad blood-“

 

I cut her off, determined to see this through.

 

“But you aren’t your family, are you? A fresh start, for a different kind of Luthor. Plus, it’s warm there.”

 

Lena watched me, unblinking while her mind turned with possibilities.

 

“National City, huh?” She finally said with a smile.

 

I knew at that moment I had succeeded.

 

“National City,” I returned.

 

The second she exited the bar, I left the mortal’s mind, leaving the young woman confused and shaking her head. I withdrew back into the sky, out into the stars and floated in the Earth’s glow. For the first time in my long, long existence I finally saw the history of life in a different light. There was a skyness to the sky and a nowness to the universe that I had never seen or felt or realised before.

 

I stared up at the stars: and it seemed to me then that they were dancers, stately and graceful, performing something almost infinite in its complexity. I imagined that I could see the very faces of the stars; pale, they were, and smiling gently, as if they had spent so much time above the world, watching the scrambling and the joy and the pain of the people below them, that they could not help being amused every time another little human believed itself the centre of its world, as each of them did.

 

The stars were laid out like worlds or like ideas, uncountable as the trees in a forest or the leaves on a tree. I could stare into the darkness of the sky until I thought of nothing at all.

 

Except for a golden thread that was burning as brightly as it ever had. Between two people who, dare I say it, were destined to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did we think? Let me know in the comments below, I love to read them and respond to all of you :)


	2. Unavoidably Detained

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The second chapter is done and dusted :) 
> 
> All my updates for all my fics are getting a little delayed, heading into the holidays, but if you read my other works don't worry. I haven't forgotten. 
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> Happy reading!

  * I don’t know a lot about love.



 

It’s not that easy to define for me. I understood it objectively of course. But once you see the universe turn and pass in front of your eyes a million trillion times, what is there to say about the joys of love?

 

The mortals of this universe define their lives by it. Love for one another, whether it be romantic, familial, platonic.

 

But what do I know of love….

 

That isn't true. I know a lot about love.

 

I've seen it, centuries and centuries of it, and it was the only thing that made watching the universe bearable. All those wars. Pain, lies, hate... It made me want to turn away and never look down again. But when I see the way that people love... You could search to the furthest reaches of the universe and never find anything more beautiful.

 

And believe me, I have.

 

I’ve never understood why mortals have to take something so pure and kind and diminish it into something lesser. Isn’t this enough for them?

 

The universe, hell, even their world? Such a strange and complex and unfathomable thing. That even I, through all the history of time and space still can’t completely comprehend. So immense in its strangeness, so much to be discovered and things to be studied and quantified, and yet they continue to diminish it by not exploring outside their box and labelling anything they don’t understand as ‘mystical’.

 

Creating faith and Gods for convenient excuses, and believing in destiny, instead of realising that the choice they’ve made to love someone is exactly that, a choice. Sure, there are inclinations in life shaped by nature and nurture, but they aren’t unexplainable.

 

You aren’t drawn to someone through destiny.

 

Has this amazing, incredible, beautiful universe so failed to hold their attention that they have to make up things to tarnish its beauty?

 

Why does it make it more impactful to say you’re destined to be with someone, as opposed to the true beauty of looking at someone in the eyes, right down to their very soul and yours, and realising that you want to be with them?

 

Not because of the universe. Or destiny.

 

But because you, in your freak of nature brain that only exists because of this sloppy chaotic universe made it so, choose that person.

 

And they, in the same set of insane and maddening circumstances, choose you too.

 

Why does the incredible, stunning nature of that mean less to you then saying in your wedding vows in front of an audience of people, half of whom you don’t even like, that it was ‘destiny’.

 

Are you so disgusted by your own efforts and your partners, that led you to this point? Are you so perplexed that you have lived a glorious life, that once again you’ve only received through a biological fluke, you write it off as destiny?

 

And all of this made me so damn mad because that bloody golden cord was throwing everything that I had developed of the entire course of time itself into the wind.

 

Because completely against the rules laid down by my  _creator,_ though I do hate that term, I was interfering in the affairs of mortals. If you live to be as long as I do, you realise people aren’t all that unique. A trillion years of life and the same mortals repeat again and again.

 

The lovers, the fighters.

 

The one’s battered and bruised by life, that they either die or live by their own terms. All that they fall to the wayside completely.

 

But what does it matter, in the grand scheme of this endless monotonous time?

 

Except, it means so much.

 

Because no matter how long you’ve lived, or how jaded you are or how much you think you know.

 

People still find a way to surprise you.

 

Like a Kryptonian, growing up in her life as a human and deciding or all things to live an ordinary life. As much as she was, as many gifts as she had, a lonely part of her would always crave to be normal even as she craved to be unique.

 

It may seem a familiar tale to most people, but the reason my eyes lingered on her at first wasn’t a golden cord, but a sweet and desperate hug.

 

That wasn’t designed by _destiny_.

 

But by the purity of choice.

 

And then there was an amazingly lonely and intelligent, at least by mortal’s terms, human. Who, with every gift she had received, earned a tenfold of pain and agony.

 

I too know a few things about estrangement from siblings….

 

And parents.

 

Maybe the real reason I hung around, instead of viewing the meteor shower in the Andromeda Galaxy, or perhaps floating around in dark space for a millennium or two…

 

Or even sitting inside a black hole for a bit, was because I happened to like these two mortals.

 

Though they seemed to spend their lives trying to spite me and my efforts to finally see them together.

 

I should’ve have known better.

 

Really, I should’ve.

 

Considering that every time I managed to get the girl with the pod and the girl with the book within a twenty-mile radius of each other, the pair still _never_ managed to meet despite the golden cord and my prodding.

 

Every time I floated to look after one of the women, the other one had to go and do something colossally stupid.

 

I had been very proud of Kara thus far, the hiccup with the Kryptonians turning up tweaking my interest, but I had faith that my girl in the pod could handle them.

 

Then she had to go and fly an alien prison into space.

 

I had spent too long hovering of Lena, who had just finalised her move to National City with a final stroke of a pen when the news came through. An alien program, Myriad….

 

Why do mortals have such a flair for the dramatic? Surely they should leave that sort of nonsense to cosmic beings like myself and my brethren. The dawn of the multiverse had only happened after my older siblings decided to spit the dummy, after all.

 

But that idiotic, stupid, dumb, insane Kryptonian who I had been so happy with for finally realising they could be more, decided to sacrifice herself and fly a stupid metal ship into the sky.

 

And all before I could get my stupid human to get her butt to National City.

 

I won’t go so far to say I was relieved that she didn’t die. After all, mortals die.

 

But not ones I’ve decided to take a special interest in, and not before they did the one thing I've wanted more than my brethren to have a civil conversation with each other.

 

So I may have extended a finger and pushed that pod in the right direction, just to make sure that it reached Kara at the right spot in the atmosphere. After all, how else would a human with zero flight experience manage to fly an alien craft, that was only supposed to be pre-programmed with a destination?

 

It was fine. Kara got back down without a hitch, people were happy and Lena’s plane landed in National City.

 

But then something happened that really blipped my radar. And I knew, from the second that blasted pod landed, with that stupid, idiotic Daxamite, that he was going to be trouble.

 

Well, maybe I didn’t know all of that at the time… but I knew that it didn’t make me happy.

 

But things were going better than they ever had before. Lena was settling, with a newfound determination and confidence I had never seen before. Kara was grounded, in a way, I’d never seen before either.

 

And Cat Grant… well.

 

She reminded me an awful lot like a cosmic being. But I was happy at least someone was taking the reigns on Kara’s life when she desperately needed it.

 

Then she had to go and think about leaving as well.

 

I should have known better.

 

The second things got better for my chances, the circumstances working against me got infinitely worse.

 

On Lena’s first day in National City, there were four almost encounters.

 

FOUR.

 

What was I supposed to do with that? What more was I supposed to do?

 

Five times in one day they almost met… BEFORE NOON! Most where they were within twenty feet of each other, but they still didn’t fucking meet.

 

The morning after Lena arrived in her new city, she was driven to work by a chauffeur.

 

Nice man Ben, in his forties

 

Had a wife called Doris that he was currently separated from, but they both hoped for the best and she had just discovered she was pregnant.

 

What?

 

I vetted the man. Got to look after my girls.

 

Not that she was….

 

Nevermind.

 

So she was being driven to work, Kara had just dropped off that soon to be discovered annoying man-child….When a car accident happened on the commute she was due to take to work.

 

A massive pile up, that blocked the entire road.

 

Everyone stopped, people were angry… No matter where in the universe, traffic jams always make people very angry. It was so bad in fact, that people were stepping out of their vehicles to check what was going on when Supergirl arrived at the scene.

 

That was right.

 

Kara, and Lena, within a few cars distance of each other. That golden glowing cord tying them together.

 

This was it, I knew it in my entire incomprehensible consciousness.

 

My girl with a pod had just lifted one car out of the way, she was standing in direct eyesight of Lena, when my girl with the book’s lovely, kindly driver, saw an opening into a side street and took it.

 

Lena, absorbed in paperwork, entirely unaware that the only other person in the history of time and space, apart from her, with that fucking Golden cord (the bane of my cosmic life) was right in front of her. And all because fucking Ken, who I could have killed if I wasn’t supposed to interfere, decided to take a side street for ‘convinience’.  


 

What about _my_  convenience, Ben?

 

I’m only a cosmic entity with powers and gifts beyond your understanding, and you decide to take a side street?

 

Fuck you, Ben. I hoped he never got back with Doris.

 

….that’s not true. He’s very kind for a mortal, and his wife was a very nice woman.

 

This made me even madder.

 

That stupid, idiotic cord had made me care not just about Lena and Kara.

 

But their friends and families, and even about chauffeurs!

 

Anyway, back to the story.

 

The second time, wasn’t all that much better.

 

Lena, having taken a ten-minute break from the droning of executives, decided to walk down to the park with some paperwork, hoping a bit of fresh air might do her some good.

 

All was well, lovely day, when a boy playing and climbing a tree thirty feet in front of her, slipped and began to fall.

 

Lucky for him, Supergirl happened to be flying by and plucked right from midair and set him down safely.

 

This was it, this was the moment.

 

I’d done my fair amount of watching people meet in my life, and I knew this was the moment. The cord was buzzing, today was the day. There had been that near miss that morning, but that was all in the past.

 

Things were happening, it was desti-

 

….. it should have happened then.

 

But my idiotic pet Kryptonian had to land just a tad too hard, sending a slight gust of wind in Lena’s direction that just happened to blow the paperwork out of her hand. So while she was scrabbling in the dirt, cursing, Kara had given the boy a two finger saluted and launched back into the sky.

 

Neither of them had seen each other.

 

What can I say? Mortals.

 

The third time, I had the best feeling yet. Kara was dressed as a human, getting coffee while pondering what career she was supposed to choose at CatCo. She was standing in line, just like an ordinary human.

 

And Lena, on her way to being driven to another building for a meeting decided to stop and collect a coffee herself. Decked out in baseball cap and sunglasses, just so she wouldn’t get recognised and harassed.

 

But what did that matter, Kara had Xray vision.

 

For all the stars in the universe, they were standing in the same bloodline and they still didn’t fucking meet.

 

At this point, I was convinced that this was the moment I was going to be driven insane. Absolutely and completely insane.

 

Lena was ahead of Kara in the line by three people.

 

Three.

 

The cord was blazing.

 

But then my girl in the pod had to check her phone and realise with a gasp that she was going to be late for her date with James Olsen, a man who was completely wrong for her in absolutely-

 

Well, we’ll get back to Olsen later.

 

So she left the coffee shop, and her chance to meet Lena once more.

 

The fourth time, things got really interesting.

 

Lena was due to be on that fucking ship. She should have been on it, but she was unable to attend.

 

Unable to attend.

 

Unable to… I mean, come on! The woman had made it her life’s mission and passion to be involved in every major scientific discovery and breakthrough, and she was unable to attend a space program launch on the venture because some stupid planners were getting restless.

 

And it was so perfect too. They could have met, Kara, sweeping Lena up and into her arms and…

 

At the time, I had no vested interest in their romantic relationship, you have to understand.

 

At the time.

 

But I needed them to meet. I needed to know. I needed to have this golden thread explained.

 

Of course, Supergirl and Superman saved the ship fine… No worries or problems.

 

Great family bonding moment.

 

Spectacular.

 

While Lena sat in a boardroom.

 

Fantastic.

 

* * *

 

I was contemplating throwing in the towel on this whole thing.

 

But then, Kara finally said her name.

 

“Alex did some digging. There was one passenger who had a seat booked on the Venture that mysteriously didn’t show up last minute.”

 

If I had a heart.

 

“Lena Luthor.”

 

I swear, even though there was no way my girl in the pod could possibly understand the importance, that cord glowed and seemed to emanate peace.

 

This was it, hopefully, but I knew by now not to get my hopes up anymore. Lena’s secretary would probably have a stroke and Kara would take her to the hospital. Or maybe an explosion would happen on the other side of town, and Kara would have to deal with it.

 

Or maybe Lena would decide that moving to National City, mostly on the advice she got from a drunk bartender, was a completely idiotic idea and would buy a motorbike with the sole intention of driving it off the face of the earth.

 

Or maybe a comet would land that would blast them both away and turn the world to ash.

 

At this point, anything could happen.

 

But still, I kept my eye on it.

 

Hoping.

 

Lena stayed in her office, her eyes nervous when Clark called to ask for an interview, but she agreed. The cousin and the girl in the pod got there fine.

 

No emergencies distracting them.

 

But for once, since this entire nonsense started I refused to do anything. If these two beings were ever going to meet they could do it by themselves.

 

I was done.

 

But then the elevator reached the floor safely.

 

The receptionist did not get sick and the building didn’t collapse and Lena Luthor herself was walking down the hall, meeting Clark with a handshake and looking Kara straight in the eyes.

 

Both of them, looking at each other straight in the eyes.

 

I braced myself.

 

The world braced itself.

 

Time and space and matter and the universe braced itself.

 

.... nothing.

 

The looked each other right in the eyes…. and nothing happened.

 

I had lived for an eternity of time, but this was by far the biggest disappointment I had ever experienced.

 

And I had to deal with the fallout of my parent's separation that shaped the multiverse!

 

Not a skip of a heart, a quickened breath.

 

Mountains didn’t shake, the concept of time didn’t split into two.

 

That cord didn’t do anything.

 

I was disgusted with everything, disgusted with myself most of all.

 

What a cruel joke I had roped myself into. Breaking the rules, getting lost in the nonsense of mortals, when I knew better.

 

Despite all my knowledge and wisdom and ethereal presence, I knew a small part of me had wondered if maybe there was something bigger than me.

 

Maybe there was something beyond my understanding.

 

Maybe for once, I just wanted to experience something in my long and lonely existence. Something these mortals had and completely took for granted.

 

The ability to not know everything.

 

That there were things that you would never know, and how incredible it was to live such an extraordinary, normal life without having to know everything. That it didn’t matter if you lived a thousand lifetimes and were immortal, because mortality…. the fact that you could die any minute made life more meaningful than anything else.

 

That sure immortality wasn’t about living forever, but about living on in the hearts and mind and memories and actions of yourself and everyone you touched in your short life. A tiny speck of existence in a vast universe.

 

So yes, I was disappointed. Crushingly so.

 

I was briefly contemplating disappearing to a far corner of the galaxy, still vaguely tuned in on the conversation when it finally happened.

 

“And who are you exactly?”

 

“I’m Kara Danvers, I’m not with the Daily Planet. I’m with CatCo magazine… sort of.”

 

“That’s a publication not known for its hard-hitting journalism. More like, high waisted jeans, yes or no.”

 

“Uh, I’m just tagging along today.”

 

Lena was defensive, Kara was uncertain and that fucking cord didn’t change at all.

 

But I didn’t care.

 

All my agony was replaced with a swell of love because it didn’t matter. Destiny didn’t exist, and time was infinite and I had lived a thousand lifetimes, but it didn’t matter.

 

Maybe my sentimentality was ridiculous, but these two mortals had made me feel more in the tiny blip of their existence, and mine, then I could ever remember feeling. I remembered what it was like to care, not to be apathetic. To give a crap about their struggles, that may seem so tiny but also meant more than anything in the world.

 

For why should the dreams of humans and kryptonians matter, any more than my own?

 

What made me so much more important?

 

Life is life, no matter to who it is given it doesn’t change the value to the universe. Only people assign a value to such things. Deeming that some are more worthy than others because they are more productive, or have more money of can look good on a camera.

 

Things that are so arbitrary in the grand scheme on the universe.

 

Just because you think your life is the most important thing to ever occur, doesn’t mean it is.

 

And, far more importantly.

 

Just because you think your life means absolutely nothing, I can assure you that isn’t true.

 

People, cosmic or mortal, aren’t defined by other people.

 

You are the most important person who ever existed and your dreams and hopes and nightmares and desires, aren’t smaller just because someone else’s seems to outshine them.

 

Even the smallest of stones can make ripples that change the lives of everyone around them.

 

“I’m just a woman trying to make a name for herself outside of her family. Can you understand that?”

 

“Yeah.”

That was when everything changed.

 

Lena smiled and I heard both of their hearts skip a beat until they were finally in sync.

 

The thread flowed brighter than the largest star in the universe and changed from gold to a shade of beautiful pink.

 

I had never liked the colour more in my life.

 

* * *

 

Kara liked her. I could tell.

 

And Lena….whew.

 

I felt like I would positively explode with happiness and delight.

 

They had finally met. The cord that had been haunting my nightmares had finally changed colour. I felt like we were all entering a new and positive stage.

 

But life, that unruly cow, is rarely kind.

 

That horrible, betraying, evil, bastard of a brother had sent an assassin after his sister. He had tried to kill her on the Venture.

 

I cursed myself, being so consumed with Lena and Kara I had once again forgotten to expand my gaze. I’m ashamed to admit that I only realised what was going on once my girl with the book was in a helicopter with drones pointed at her.

 

But my girl in the pod didn’t disappoint.

 

She stopped the bullets, along with the cousin, but the cousin had to leave to save the city.

 

Leaving Kara, to save Lena.

 

Then she stopped a missile and fell from the sky.

 

And lost consciousness.

 

How could she have lost consciousness? Because this entire stupid, painful, hair-tearing situation had been destin… was doomed for failure.

 

I knew I shouldn’t have done it.

 

I’d already interfered far too much just to get them both to this point. I knew it was against the rules and I was pushing the envelope, but I had already put that much investment into the pair.

 

What was a little more going to hurt?

 

I extended a thread, and I woke Kara up.

 

“You’re safe now.”

 

The pink glow seemed to cloak the city.

 

Three missed meetings, but not a bad first day.

 

* * *

 

Centuries ago, before the matrix and genetic matches. Before the idea of love had been reduced to nothing more than a string of numbers on a computer, weddings on Krypton were considered a joyous occasion for more than just the uniting of families.

 

But for the union of two souls.

 

The partners would stand on the Jewel of Truth and Honour, and the partners would declare to themselves and all present that their vows would bind them through all of space and eternity.

 

A pretty grand gesture, if you ask me. Especially when at that point, Kryptonians had begun to realise just how large the universe they lived in was. They would trade headbands and would be united by cloth to seal their union. After the first words were spoken, they would trade bracelets unique is design and colour, made such that no other couple would be allowed to duplicate them.

 

Sealed with a kiss and a promise never to part. Kryptonian law forbade divorce. Once a couple was bonded, that was it. Perhaps because of that, once the Kryptonians stopped believing in soulmates, it was left to a computer to judge relationships. It had to pre-approve marriages to test the couples’ compatibility and by law, a marriage could only go through if approved by it.

 

And it was treason to defy its rulings.

 

What was there to say to that?

 

I know of love, how could I not?

 

I know that love is unconditional. But I also know that it can be unpredictable, unexpected, uncontrollable, unbearable and strangely easy to mistake for loathing, even though I never imagined I'd know it for myself.

 

The way these mortals would look at each other. As if their chests could barely contain their hearts. That if they physically could, they would rip their escaping hearts from their chests because it didn’t belong to them anymore. But it belongs to the one they loved.

 

And if the one they love wanted it, they’d wish for nothing in exchange - no gifts. No goods. No demonstrations of devotion. Nothing but knowing that the other person loved them too. Just their heart, in exchange.

 

And how could any rules, or realities or laws of the universe explain that? What fluke of biology made it so that people could fall in love with such abandon. That other’s lives could mean so much more to them than their own.

 

The value of life is so arbitrary to the individual measuring them, but what made someone else so much more important than another in your mind.

 

Was it because in this crazy, mad, inexplicable universe, you thought you’d found your soulmate?

 

A person whose love is powerful enough to help you discover more about yourself than you ever thought possible. Someone that you feel like you’ve loved forever, not found but finally recognized. That you have loved since the beginning of everything.

 

Created along with the atoms on the universe, and diluted from the very same star.

 

A person that completes you so fully, that you wouldn’t want to be anyone but yourself with them because it would just make it less real. A person you feel safe enough to be your truest self and let them step out so you can be completely and honestly who you are, and you can be loved for that and that alone. When that other person unveils the best part of you. And no matter what else goes wrong around them, with that one person, they always felt protected. 

 

A bond that is pure and perfect and ancient. Seemingly older than the planet and eternity. Because in mortals minds, given another a piece of your soul is the highest compliment they can bestow. Because they see souls as eternal.

 

But in all my time, the true pairings defined by climate love aren’t the people that assume the other will be their perfect fit. The ones that truly shone beauty down on all those around them were the ones that realised the partner they picked is a mirror, the person who shows them everything that is holding them back.

 

The person who shows you that you can change your own life.

 

But what are the chances of meeting someone like that, I often wondered? Someone you could love forever, someone who would forever love you back? And what did you do when that person was born half a world away? Half a universe away.

 

Why was this seemingly random person in a sea of billions the ‘one’ for you?

 

The math seems impossible.

 

So how could I say I believed in soulmates.

 

Do you understand why it doesn’t make sense? Why do people want to take their own choice out of the matter to assign some sort of cosmic significance to it? Why are mortals so entitled that they believe they have a right to correct about the universe.

 

When in fact, the universe is under no obligation to make sense to them.

 

To anyone. Not even to me.

 

Was that why I was so confused?

 

Because the math was impossible, and a history of pain had shown me otherwise, and the chances of it happening were a million trillion to one. But two people who had been separated by time, and distance and worlds had met.

 

Had found one another.

 

And why was I so desperate for it to happen?

 

* * *

 

The next time they met, it was as Kara and Lena.

 

For some inexplicable reason… not destiny… my girl with the pod listened to her mentor's advice and dove. Now, I doubt she knew it at the time. So many options on the table and she’d only just met Lena that day, but she still followed her gut and dove right in.

 

How else could you explain a random not yet an assistant trying to talk a CEO of a multi-billion dollar company she met the day before, out of a hugely important ceremony?

 

She was daring and diving.

 

It all went to hell, of course. But I wasn’t frightened anymore. Kara and Lena both performed admirably and the day ended on a good note, at least for me.

 

The next day was even better.

 

The cousin wrote a good article that made Lena very happy.

 

My girl with the book deserves all the good things.

 

And then she had turned to Kara, their hearts having fallen back into sync the second they had entered the same room.

 

“And what about you, Ms Danvers?” She asked, with a stunning smile. “I didn’t see your name on the byline?”

 

“Uh, well like I said, I’m not a reporter.”

 

“You could have fooled me.”

 

The pink cord echoed the blush in Kara’s cheek, and I didn’t miss the way her eyes followed Lena’s form as she walked back to her desk.

 

“I hope this isn’t the last time we talk.”

 

Kara smiled.

 

“I hope not either.”

 

They both didn’t know it, but they had both helped each other that day. I knew that this all had to mean something. They had only just met, but they were both already changing each other for the better. Kara felt stronger in her resolve.

 

Lena felt like she’d finally found a friend.

 

I should have left then maybe, just hovered a bit and vanished into space. I’d gotten what I came for, surely. My girls had met, the cord had changed colour, clearly, they were going to be in each other's lives….

 

But I could help but feel that there would be something more.

 

Something more important.

 

The mystery had yet to be solved, it just felt like I was at stage two. And knowing my girl with the pod and my girl with the book, the second I went on one solar rotation they would probably have destroyed all my hard work.

 

What? You thought after all my work getting these losers together I was going to abandon them now?

 

Not a chance.

 

* * *

 

The next time they met, Kara was conducting her first interview. It was intriguing to see that she had become a reporter, a recorder of history as it were. Though I had to wonder sometimes why that was something she decided to do.

 

Why would she turn away from all that she had learnt and known on Krypton? With knowledge far beyond the most advanced of mathematical and scientific minds, she decided to turn away from all she’d planned to be, everything that she had been trained to be, all to get coffee and study marketing.

 

But everyone wants to fit in and be challenged. And in an effort to do so, she had to hide more than just her powers, but her intelligence too.

 

Maybe that was the real reason she wanted to be a reporter. Because studying history is important as it allows us to understand our past, which allows us to understand our present. If people want to know how and why anything happens, happened or will happen, they have to look to history for answers.

 

Because if people don’t study the successes and failures of the past, they will never learn from their mistakes and avoid repeating them in the future.

 

Whether mortal or not.

 

So maybe it wasn’t so hard to understand at all, when a refugee from a destroyed planet that never learned from their own mistakes, wouldn’t want to repeat that pattern.

 

It was… admirable.

 

Things went well.

 

They met, then they met again.

 

And then, that stupid, idiotic, self-absorbed, frat boy had to wake up from his fucking coma and put a dent in all my plans. Because as soon as he and Kara began to ‘talk’ and she began to sympathise, the cord between her and Lena lost some of its sheen.

 

Not good.

 

And then he had to intrude on a fantastic potential bonding moment between Lena and Kara.

 

The girl with the book had spent an entire night tossing and turning about asking the girl in the pod to the gala she had organised. And just when she finally worked up the courage to ask Kara, that bonehead had to invite himself along.

 

The blonde had been in the middle of desperately trying to make the Daxamite into a functioning adult when Lena had shown up at her office.

 

“Kara?”

 

The girl in the pod had turned, and the bond began to glow steadily once more.

 

“Lena! A surprise visit to CatCo?”

 

Both their hearts had fallen in sync, and once more I was addicted to the feeling of contentment it gave me.

 

“No, I’m here to see you actually.”

 

“You are?”

 

“L-Corp is hosting a party this weekend. It’s a gala fundraiser for the children’s hospital after that horrific attack on their new building. I was hoping you’d come.”

 

Kara’s heart picked up, so did Lena’s.

 

If I had a heart, it would have picked up too.

 

Then that ginormously, cosmically, inconsiderate prick had to speak.

 

“A gala? Is that like a party.”

 

Kara may have been falling for the man with her stupid saviour complex, but even she didn’t want that to occur.

 

“No! No, it’s not.”

 

I could sense Lena’s disappointment from a world away, but she still did her best, bless her heart.

 

“You are literally my only friend in National City. Most people wouldn’t touch a Luthor with a ten-foot pole.”

 

Good, Lena….. good. Kara, save your new friend who actually has a brain.

 

“It would mean a lot to me if you were there.”  


 

Kara smiled.

 

“Of course I’ll come! I’m honoured.”

 

Lena smiled.

 

I smiled.

 

“I love parties. Could I come too?”

 

If Lena hadn’t been raised with impeccable manners, I swear she would have roasted the idiot alive from where she stood.

 

Instead, the bond flickered and she invited him too.

 

Why couldn’t they just be left alone?

 

The worst part was, he was just there in the present.

 

I could also see a ship hundreds of feet below their feet where he exited too. Evidently, this man was going to hang around and show up in multiple points if I didn’t figure out what to do about it.

 

Otherwise, I knew that the prince of douchiness would fuck up my plans.

 

But the second I began to contemplate interfering again, maybe with a well-placed anvil dropped on his head when I felt a tug that pulled on me. A very familiar tug that sent me back through the reaches of time and space and matter, and into the white plains where everything had all began.

 

My physical form grew, something I hadn’t experienced in a long time, and I turned to find both of my parents glaring at me, along with my oldest sibling looking at me with the widest smirk in existence.

 

I winced.

 

“Well, well, little one,” my sibling all but cackled. “Interfering with the lives of mortals? We have been bad.”

 

And it had all been going so well.

 

“Hello, parents…. hello-“

 

“God.”

 

I gave my sibling an exasperated.

 

Evidently, no amount of time existed that could deflate their head,

 

“God? Really?” I asked.

 

Their smile just widened.

 

“Yes, well… I enjoy the mortal’s worship.”

 

I rolled my eyes.

 

“Why are you here? Don’t you have your own universe to attend to.”

 

They laughed.

 

“I would be… but how could I miss this?” They laughed. “You’re not so high and mighty now, are you little one?”

 

One of my parents hushed them, before looking at me with anger.

 

“Do you have any idea what you could have done?”

 

I swallowed. 


	3. A New Dawn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I'm back from hiatus, ready to rock and roll with all my fics :)
> 
> If you'd like to follow me on Tumblr, the link is in my bio and it's the same name :)
> 
> Happy reading!

Eons ago, before time even existed as a concept, two immortal entities got together and decided to create things to play with because they were bored. Those things were their children. The endless nothingness that had always existed wasn’t enough to satisfy them any more… no, they had to create minions to mould to their will and desires. They were issuing rules like we didn’t have anything better to do than listen to them.

 

They fell in love; they had sex. The only problem was, they were celestial beings and that moment created the universe.

 

Talk about a big bang….

 

Maybe I sound bitter, but I was sick of being the only one who gave a damn anymore. 

 

When things fell apart, and all my siblings went our various ways, folding ourselves through time and space, drifting each to our own multiverse to travel and watch grow, things had been better. The situation of life was never going to change, but I could improve myself in this new life. The problem was, I had no goal and purpose. In an immortal existence, what was there to exist for? Instead, I drifted and watched as an endless array of life grew and decayed. Searching for something to fill the emptiness in me, that I never quite seemed to understand. I learned things from my time about life, watching as my own struggle seemed to be mimicked by the billions of mortals beneath me.

 

These people didn’t arrive broken. They all started with passion and yearning until something came along that disabused them of those notions.

 

Sadness is never relative.

 

And people, no matter where they’re from, will always manage to prove you right and wrong simultaneously. 

 

Unless that person was your arsehole of a sibling, who spent _their_ eternity of life, annoying the shit out of you.

 

“Oh, little one….. you’ve done it this time,” my sibling chuckled out again, shaking their head with amusement.

 

I scowled at them and crossed my arms.

 

“Shut up.”

 

They let out a dark laugh at my venom.

 

“So crass…. Spend a bit of time flouncing amongst mortals, and suddenly you think-“

 

I’d had enough. Centuries floating in the metaphysical plane had been hard enough before they finally stopped sponging off our parents and got their own universe, and I had very little interest in dealing with their bullshit again. It doesn’t matter if your sibling is the high school football star or a god-like entity….

 

Older, arrogant siblings are always full of shit, especially when they’re your parents favourite.

 

“Shut it,” I barked out. “Firstly, before you try and flounce in like an arrogant toerag with your condescending bullshit, this is not what you think. This isn’t like you, creating disasters and destroying planets for your pleasure, ok? This is my universe; stick to your own.”

 

They let out a full-bellied laugh at that.

 

“So testy….”

 

I was about to answer back when my elder parent barked over us.

 

“ENOUGH! Both of you,” they shouted, before turning to face me with a stern eye.

 

“You have deliberately flouted the very rules and governances in place to stop the breaches of space and time,” they muttered coldly. “You could have created an unbendable tear in the continuum. What were you thinking?”

 

I felt a pang of soft rebellion curl in my chest at their words, resentment at the last few millennia spent alone and in silence, with no contact from either of my parents or my numerous siblings. I never felt at home with them anyone, but to be so blatantly strict about my minor meddling in the affairs of two mortals, when my older siblings had exploded planets in their own universe during the first billion years of their custodianship.

 

“Fantastic to see you as well,” I muttered back spitefully. "After millennia, it’s good to know my parents who refuse to talk to each other will come out of whatever dark space they’re hiding in to lecture me.”

 

My other parent growled at my words.

 

“What yourself, child,” they said is their humming voice, reminding me of the cascading meteor shower I had witnessed outside of the Whirlpool Galaxy many years ago. “You have treaded a dangerous path recently. It would not do to test our anger.”

 

I glared up at them.

 

“I haven’t done anything wrong,” I proclaimed.

 

My elder parent let out a booming shout at my words, never one to handle back talk well.

 

“You have mocked the dynamics of our very existence! Playing with the lives of two mortals, and for what? Because you feel a sense of sentimentality towards them? We have been watching your actions, and we are not impressed.”

 

“You gave me the discretion to do as I will amongst my own universe. I have toed ever single line you have drawn for my entire existence. And you haul me in here for what, putting two insignificant mortals together on the same path?”

 

My sibling let out a laugh once more, stepping forward to clap me on the shoulder.

 

“But they’re not just two mortals, are they little one?” They teased. "No, these two are special to you, aren’t they? Otherwise, why would you break your eternity of abstinence from fun, for their sakes alone? Whole galaxies have imploded while your gaze has been locked on this pair.”

 

I swallowed the lump in my thought and scuffed my feet, trying to prevent my admittedly obsessional interest in my Girl in the Pod and my Girl with the Book. It wasn’t something that they would’ve understood.

 

“They’re nothing,” I muttered out.

 

There was a brief pause before my sibling let out a long and low whistle at my words.

 

“Oh, no…. don’t tell me you want them to be in love?”

 

I blushed faintly, and cursed my corporal form, blaming it on my recent study of humans. 

 

Cosmic entities don’t even have blood for the star's sake.

 

My sibling let out another laugh, delighted at having caught me out.

 

"You always were a sentimental fool.”

 

I shot them an evil look.

 

“I don’t want them to…..” 

 

I let out an agitated huff before ignoring them and turning once more to face my parents.

 

“Parents, there is a bond between them… a coloured cord that I’ve never seen before,” I tried to explain, clear excitement colouring my voice. “It’s incredible. If you could see it, you’d understand-“

 

They cut me off.

 

“No, we won’t.”

 

I felt my joy snuff out in one fell swoop.

 

“For what you have done,” my elder parent continued. “We could erase you from existence. The ripples of your interference have caused cracks already. The walls are starting to crumble.”

 

I shook my head violently in protest/

 

“That’s not true! It can’t be true… the connection between them is…. it’s….”

 

How could I even find the words to describe it? After all my years of life, I had never seen anything like is. The bond between them was so powerful; it was almost as if it was….

 

I stayed silent, and my sibling began to laugh once more.

 

“Oh please tell me you’re not starting to believe in destiny.”

 

That made me angry.

 

“I don’t know what to believe, because I’ve never seen anything like this before!” I shouted at them, embarrassed by my near admittance of contemplating that destiny could exist. I knew it was ludicrous, but what other explanation did I have left? 

 

“Nobody has ever seen anything like this,” I said to my parents. “You can’t ask me to walk away.”

 

They brushed off my words.  


 

“You are not to interfere in the ways of mortals again. Otherwise, the consequences will be severe.”

 

I looked between there sonic faces, not an inch of sympathy on either. The problem was, they had spent so much time above, that they didn’t view mortals as necessary any more. The same way I hadn’t, once upon a time…. But ever since I had watched my two girls together, I could no longer deny the fantastic nature of mortals. 

 

But I had been given a direct order, and who was I to deny my creators? 

 

“Fine.”

 

* * *

 

The next few years I watched my two girls in silence, unable to interact or interfere with them in any way. I watched as Kara ‘fell in love’ with that boffin of a Daxamite. I watched as she lost him. I watched as he broke her heart once more by returning to Earth. I waited, thankful when he left once more. I watched as she carved out a name for herself, settling roots into her new life as a reporter and discovering who she indeed was. And I watched as she fought against her nature, her demons and became a better person for it. I watched as her shattered heart regained a lost piece, discovering that her mother was still alive. I watched with fear as she disappeared from this universe altogether, but then with relief as she returned once more. 

 

I watched and watched and watched.

 

And Lena…. I watched as she struggled and strived to fight the demons within herself, struggling to define herself outside of the shadow of her family. I watched as she morphed and changed and bloomed. And I watched as she grew to be a stronger person and a fiercer friend. I watched as she engaged, ridiculously with James Olsen of all people…. he always did seem to be getting in the way, and I waited at the man hurt and wounded her.

 

And all the while, I could do nothing.

 

My heart and soul filled with despair, watching as they simultaneously became closer… and yet grew further and further apart.

 

I watched in cold silence, from so far away as the cord between them danced and played with light and activity.

 

And yet nothing between them happened. Nothing changed or grew.

 

I don’t know when it happened, but one day I found myself drifting away. Far, far away. Back into the dark spaces of the universe, watching as the suns burned and the stars fell from the sky. As worlds were created and the universe seemed to dance and sing in cold light, mocking my inability to do anything of interest.

 

I could forget, forget the only thing that had given me more purpose than anything else in my entire existence, but I should have known better. 

 

One day, when I was seriously contemplating entering a black hole, I fell it once again. A finger brushing at the corner of my mind, calling out across the stars for something and demanding my attention. My mind followed it, and my conciseness too. Almost like a dog that had heard an exceptionally high whistle. And that was how I found myself, drifting through dark space and back into the Milky Way — flying through the solar system and past the planets and sun until I saw them again.

 

The cord was constricting and tight, looking on the verge of snapping, and I felt a stab of panic in my chest.

 

They both looked older than before like time and life had hardened and softened them all at once. There seemed to be a new closeness between them, but also a distant that was raw and powerful. The energy in the room thrummed with tension, the cord vibrated, flashing between new colours and old, dancing with a continuous stream of rainbow light. Shades that even I hadn’t seen since the start of the universe. Lena was sitting in her office, but she wasn’t working.

 

Instead, she sat hunched over her desk, her shoulders tensed with exhaustion. Her computer was open, and she was staring dully at the screen. A photo of Kara was smiling up at the camera beaming. After a few seconds of silent breathing, Lena reached her fingers out and touched the screen, almost as if she was willing her fingers to transfer through the screen and onto the Girl in the Pods skin. 

 

I frowned at that, before turning my gaze to focus on the other end of the flickering cord, the sight of Kara flying around the city, seemingly aimlessly, with a newer amour-plated looking suit. Suddenly, she turned in the air, and the flickering cord and energy seemed to light up the sky like a storm, and she turned her gaze to the L-Corp building.

 

It only took a few seconds, for Kara to land on the office balcony, and step through the open doors.

 

“What are you doing here?”

 

Kara took a breath, before gesturing weakly.

 

“You left the door open.”

 

Lena’s eyes became cloudy and guarded.

 

“I suppose I did.”

 

A tense silence descended between them, and my curiosity and apprehension were piqued. What exactly had occurred between my two girls to cause this? 

 

“Lena-“

 

“What do you want me to say, Kara?” 

 

The name rang in the air, and I felt a flash of fear. 

 

So… know Lena knew the truth.

 

“There are no words for what you did to me… and there are none for what I am either,” Lena continued in a dark voice.  


 

“If I could turn back time-“ Kara tried to say, stepping forward.

 

The dark-haired woman cut her off with a wave of her hand.

 

“You wouldn’t do anything differently,” she said bluntly. “I wouldn’t do anything differently. Because that's just who we are." 

 

Lena took a deep breath before looking Kara dead in the eye.

 

“I’m a Luthor.”

 

The blonde shook her head and frowned.

 

“You’re not just a Luthor. That’s only half of who you are.”  


“And who’s the other half?” Lena said breathlessly, exhausted. “I suppose you might know more than most. Leading two lives.”

 

The words stung Kara, making her reel back half a step before she composed herself and formed a reply.

 

“It was a mistake, not telling you,” she whispered out.

 

Suddenly, Lena’s facade of calm snapped at Kara’s words. She reached for a paperweight sitting on her desk, picking it up and hurling it into the corner of her room. 

 

It shattered into a thousand pieces, Lena swinging around to yell at the blonde superhero with tears rushing down her face.

 

“The mistake was me trusting you, Kara!”

 

The Girl in the Pod’s face crumbled at the sight of Lena’s pain.

 

“I was trying to protect you!” She tried to explain. “I was trying to protect my family and myself. I wouldn’t have told you until I knew you better, but once I did I…. Lena, I-“

 

The other woman cut her off once more with an indignant scoff.  


 

“The only reason you bothered to get to know me in the first place was to keep an eye on me,” she spat out bitterly. “I’m a Luthor, and you had to make sure that I wasn’t secretly evil. You were pretending to be my friend, and then you betrayed me." 

 

Her hands began to shudder, and she braced herself against the desk.

 

“For years, every day you have been betraying me.”

 

Kara shook her head in reply, her eyes pleading.

 

“That’s not true, Lena. You’re my friend,” she whispered out in a cracked voice.

 

The brunette let out a soft sob, her eyes shimmering with tears.

 

“You listened to me, enraged that Supergirl had broken into my offices and… all you do is lie to me, again and again! Pretending to care about me and about how I felt. Taking things I said to you in confidence and using them against me.” 

 

Kara stepped forward, but Lena held her away with her arm.

 

“Was the DEO tracking my every move through you? All the people I thought were my friends… I made them through you. Everyone was lying to me. I rebuilt my whole life on your friendship, and it has all been fake. ”

 

At those last words, Kara’s temper also snapped.

 

“You’ve lied to me too, Lena. You’ve lied to me too,” she accused. “The Kryptonite… the Harun El….. You wanted me to share everything in my life because you saw me as your ticket to innocence and kindness; you didn’t want me to be anything else. I’m a person, Lena… not just something you can use to validate yourself as a person with humanity.” 

 

She turned and began to pace the floor.

 

“You insult the idea of Supergirl, but you think Kara was somehow better because even though I was ‘good’, I didn’t do anything about ANYTHING! Kara Danvers meant a ticket to normalcy for you, that was all you wanted from me. After everything we’ve been through, you didn’t want me to think of you outside of the frame of mind that you placed me in.”

 

Lena glared at her.

 

“That is not true,” she answered in retort.  


 

“Tell me it isn’t,” Kara demanded. "Tell me that you didn’t just cling to me for your desperation to have a friend!”

 

Lena’s eyes wavered, darting to the floor.

 

“I didn’t.”

 

Kara let out a mocking laugh.

 

“You’re lying. You forget I’m Supergirl. I can hear it when you’re lying-“  


“IM IN LOVE WITH YOU!” 

 

Silence. Total and utter silence. 

 

I watched intensely as the cord suddenly stopped at the admittance. No more fluctuation, no more colour changes. All while Kara and Lena stared into each other's eyes.

 

“…what?”

 

Lena looked away at that, pained.

 

“That’s why…. I’m in love with you. I’ve been in love with you ever since we first met. That's why…. every…. Every single thing these past few years in my life has been about that. I love you. And everything about our relationship was based on me being in fucking love with you.” 

 

She sat down in her chair and braced her forehead in her hand.

 

“The reason that I’m so angry is that I allowed myself to fall in love with someone who has lied to me this entire time because I trusted you! You may think I was lying to you, but I wasn’t. Not to Kara. Not to…. My entire life, I’ve felt alone. And it was only when I met you that I finally realised that there was more to who I was. Kara Danvers made me a better person; Kara Danvers was my hero.” 

 

She looked up at that, eyes red-rimmed with pain and tears.

 

“And you destroyed that for me. And the worst part about this is the fact that I’m still in FUCKING LOVE WITH YOU!”

 

Everything in my life seemed so small compared to this. Watching as a universe grew and destroyed itself, trillions of lives crying out in pain, anger and joy. And all I had left was the shouted words of a Girl with a Book, crying out to the stars for love and acceptance. 

 

My gaze drifted back to Kara, who had an expression of profound regret.

 

“…Lena, I don’t know…. I’m sorry, but I don’t lov….”

 

My joys and hopes evaporated at the same time as Lena’s.

 

“Just go… I…. please, go,” the brunette said, destroyed.

 

Kara took a breath, the cord shivered and suddenly….

 

It snapped.

 

* * *

 

For as long as mortals have understood the concept of death, they have been searching for the meaning of life. Trying to find out just what it was that made their life valid, something that gave them comfort in the dark of the night and as they lay cold on their deathbeds. Something that gave them excitement as every new child was born, crying into the light of the sun. A thing to cling too as they sat in the trenches of war, praying to a God for courage, knowing they were but a few seconds away from death. 

 

For a long time, I found it amusing how they scrambled in the dirt in a desperate search for happiness — avoiding the real moments of their lives in search of some higher meaning and purpose. Forgetting that life in itself has no meaning at all, except for the one you bring yourself. Some people mastered it, becoming the light in the darkness that helped others and themselves scout their course. Given their time was life’s most profound significance. 

 

As for myself, it was all redundant to me. My life had no purpose at all, in its endless infinity… but maybe, in the sight of this incredible corded bond, I had found my meaning after all.

 

And now, just like that, it was gone.

 

The writers of this cosmic play had a twisted sense of humour.

 

I watched with despair as Kara walked away from Lena, and the distance between them grew and grew.

 

And the cord was just… gone. Like it had never existed at all.

 

I couldn’t let that happen, could I?

 

Fuck it; I’d had enough.

 

* * *

 

I found her one rainy winter day, sitting in a cafe and looking out at the busy street. Kara looked worse for wear than she ever had before. She looked like she hadn’t slept in a week and had been dragged through a pile of dirty laundry. Her eyes red-rimmed and her hair ratty. 

 

And that cord was just…. Gone.

 

She looked lost and alone and empty and full of despair.

 

I sighed.

 

The things I do for love.

 

I spotted the male barista behind the bar, extended my consciousness once more. It was more comfortable than the first time with the female bartender, the male being considerably vapider. I held myself in check, stopping from snapping his consciousness into goo. My first thought was that everything was dull. Light, colours, sounds… everything was filtered into a darker setting than I ever considered possible. I adjusted quickly, rifling through the man’s mind and memories quickly, shuddering at a particularly unpleasant memory involving a pecan pie, to get my bearings and turned to look at her through mortal eyes. 

 

Her skin was like diamonds, shattering stars that reflected some eternal light. She glowed with fire, not unlike the sun that her home planet once rotated. The mortal man didn’t see this though, his own thoughts and dreams in his subconsciousness churning over a stupid movie he had watched three nights ago. 

 

Surely if he had, he would have wept from the sadness that radiated from her very skin. I thought for a second about how to approach this.

 

I looked towards the coffee machine and smiled.

 

“Here,” I said, handing the drink I had made to the exhausted blonde.

 

She seemed lost for a second before blinking and looking at me with surprise.

 

“I’m sorry?”

 

I smiled toothily, wondering if I was doing it right.

 

“You looked a bit down, so I made you a coffee. On the house.”

 

Kara took the cup, a small smile on her lips.

 

“Oh… thanks.”

 

She took a sip and her eyebrows arched in surprise.

 

“Wow, that’s… perfect actually,” she said, looking up with a larger smile. “Most people would balk at putting the amount of sugar I like in a coffee. How did you know?”

 

I shrugged.

 

“Lucky guess.”

 

Kara gave me a funny look but seemed to accept the words. 

 

“Well thanks…. I’ve been having a bad week. It’s nice that people still do random acts of kindness.”

 

I let out a laugh.

 

“Small ways to be a hero, am I right?”

 

The corners of her mouth turned down, and she looked back out and into the rain.

 

“Yeah….”

 

I watched her for half a minute with concern, before speaking in a soft voice. 

 

“Want to talk about it?”

 

She turned, blinking up at me as if she was shocked I was still there at all.

 

“Not…. I don’t know.”

 

I shrugged once again.  


 

“Sometimes it helps to talk to a stranger about these things, you know. No judgment that way.”

 

She watched me for a bit, apparently trying to make up her mind.

 

“You know what, why not.”

 

I pulled up the seat in front of her and splayed my hands against the table.

 

“So, what’s got you down?”

 

The blonde played with her coffee for half a second, before a bucket of words flowed out of her like a stream.

 

“A week ago I found out my best friend is in love with me. The thing is, we’ve been lying to each other…. I’ve been lying to her the entire time we’ve known each other about something huge. Ginormous. And everything is going to hell because she is one of the most important people in my life and I have no idea what I would do without her and even though I’m not…. Even though I’m not in love with her, I don’t want to lose her. But I think it’s too late.”

 

Even though I knew all this, it was somewhat reassuring to hear it from Kara’s own lips. 

 

Still, the silly fool always seemed to be labouring under the delusion that she didn’t love Lena in return.

 

It was going to take a while.

 

“Well, why don’t you just start from the beginning?” I asked.

 

Kara let out a laugh and leant back in her chair.

 

“How much time have you got?”

 

I smiled.

 

“All the time in the universe.”

 

* * *

 

As the final words of Kara’s long and poorly redacted life tale, in which she used a ridiculous number of metaphors trying to explain away who she was, I sat back in my chair and pretended to absorb them carefully while she watched me with a tense expression, gnawing at her lower lip.

 

“Well… you’ve certainly lived an interesting life,” I said.

 

Kara let out a breath and sighed.

 

“Yeah…..”

 

I nodded in understanding, tracing my fingers over the coffee stained table.

 

“So this girl filled your office with flowers?”

 

A nod.  


“Yeah.”

 

I waited for a beat.

 

“And she has been texting you every day for the past four years?”

 

Another nod.

 

“Yeah.”

 

I eyed her carefully, eating for some dawning in her eyes.

 

“And she has, on numerous occasions, chosen you over her family?”

 

She sighed out.

 

“Yes.”

 

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. How was she still not getting this?

 

“And she is, in your own words, ‘good and kind and amazing’?" 

 

Kara nodded earnestly.

 

“She is.”

 

I bit back a groan.

 

“And ever since she’s been in your life, she’s been by your side every step of the way?

 

That’s when I saw it, the start of comprehension as the wheels began to turn in her mind.  


“….yes.”

 

I stared at her flatly.

 

“So you had no idea this girl was in love with you.”

 

A long pause.

 

“….no.”

 

“Ah.”

 

Suddenly, Kara let out a pained groan, and her forehead dropped onto the table with athud.

 

“God, I’m an idiot, aren’t I?” She mumbled.

 

I let out a deep laugh at her words.

 

“For an all-powerful Kryptonian, yes.”

 

Her head suddenly snapped up.

 

“Wait… what?”

 

“Oh come on,” I snorted out. “You can’t expect me not to draw that conclusion from all the ‘metaphors’ you used in describing yourself. You’re either Supergirl, our you’re a weirdly loose-lipped secret agent for a foreign power.”

 

Kara stared at me blankly, unblinking.

 

“I’m not Supergirl,” she said slowly.

 

I arched an eyebrow.  


 

“…sure…. and this girl you’re ‘not’ in love with isn’t Lena Luthor.”

 

The blonde stared at me.  


 

“How do you know this?” She demanded in a harsh voice, taking off her glasses. “Who are you?”

 

I allowed some of my immortal consciousness to fold out, and onto the mortal, I was inhabiting face.

 

“She does love you, you know,” I said, in a voice with a tinge of ethereal timbre. 

 

Kara’s eyes winded, her face growing pale.

 

“I….Who are you?” She asked once more.

 

I leaned forward, tilting my head and smiling.

 

“Tell me… do you believe in destiny?” I asked. “That people are in charge of their own destiny? Except for one thing single thing, that in every universe and throughout the multiverse, every soul had a pair. Not to be predetermined by a computer or code, but by something deeper and far more intuitive. A deep instinct, calling out from across the stars and suns and planets, that there was a reflection of themselves. And no matter how far away, even in another dimension, they would always be destined to find each other?”

 

I saw her eyes spark in recognition of the ancient teachings her people, her face lighting up in remembrance.

 

“Can you imagine that love?” I continued, painting a picture with my words. “A love so powerful… a bond so strong that despite years of pain and struggle and hour two people can find each other? And maybe it was the last person you expected…. maybe it was the last person you thought possible…. But when you wake up in the morning, your thoughts drift to them. And your behaviour changes every day, just a little because something deep within you is crying out to make them happy. And you feel every emotion possible when you’re with them… every single one, because they deserve to have every emotion felt.” 

 

Tears began to form and fall down Kara’s face, even as I continued.

 

"That a person so incredible, who compliments and mimics you in every way…. who challenges you when you need to be challenged… who forces you to be the best version of yourself…. do you think that person exists? Do you believe you were destined to meet them? A person that can make everything that has ever happened to you, every unexplainable thing, have meaning? Because it leads you to them?” 

 

I allowed my thoughts to drift out, touching the edges of Kara’s mind as I suddenly showed her a flash of images.

 

Every single one, a face of hers and Lena’s together. All the emotions both of them had felt. The loss, the pain, the loneliness.

 

And the love, the power of that cord between them.

 

“Can you imagine the power of that bond?” I whispered out. 

 

Kara seemed unaware of the tears falling down her face, her eyes lost in the images and feelings.

 

“…yes,” she whispered out, letting out a laugh of happiness.

 

I withdrew once more, reigning my powers back until I appeared as usual as a human.

 

“Then don’t you think you should go tell her that then?” I asked in anormal voice once more.

 

She wiped away her tears slowly.

 

“I can’t…. so much has happened….” She tried to say.  


“Things will always ‘happen’ to prevent you from being happy,” I answered in response. “But if you let that stop you from finding it, that’s the true tragedy. You have one small, tiny life in the grand scheme of the universe, but you have been blessed to have met someone who makes you feel more alive and awake than anything else you’ve ever encountered. The chance of that occurring is so small… and that girl has spent the past week hoping you’ll walk back in her door.”

 

Kara bit her lip, trying to decide.

 

“What do I do?” She asked.

 

I shrugged.

 

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”  


Kara nodded and scrambled to her feet suddenly, gathering her coat and making to leave. It was only once she had walked two steps away, jacket on backwards that she turned back to face me.

 

“Are you a God?” 

 

I shook my head and smiled.

 

“No…. just a passerby.”

 

The blonde nodded her acceptance of my words.

 

“Thank you,” she said sincerely, before bolting out the door as fast as her human facade would allow.

 

I let out a breath.

 

“You’re welcome, Kara.”

 

* * *

It didn’t take long for Kara to arrive at Lena’s office once more, storming inside and slamming the door shut behind her. Lena, looking up form her work with a start as the blonde stalked towards her.

 

“Kara, I don’t want-“

 

The blonde cut her off, falling to her knees beside the other woman and grasping her hands.

 

“No. My turn to speak.”

 

The brunette blinked down at her in shock, while Kara took a few seconds to gather her thoughts and reply.

 

“Lena, you are the single most incredible person I’ve ever met,” the blonde finally began. “And I…. I am so sorry that I never told you I was Supergirl…. And what I told you was true. I was trying to protect myself, and my family and… and…. the truth is, I fell in love with you too — more than anything. And you wanted to spend time with me as me, not as Supergirl. You were the only person in my life who didn’t know that I was Supergirl and you still fought for me. You wanted to protect me, at every step of the way. And I was addicted to the way you cared for me. I still am.”

 

Lena’s mouth dropped in shock as Kara lifted there joined hands up so she could press a gentle kiss to the back of the CEO’s.

 

“When I’m with you,” Kara breathed out. “I feel more like myself than with anyone else. I feel like all the lies I drape myself in fade away when I look into your eyes. You unveil the best part of me, and no matter what else is going on in my life, I know that I feel safe with you. I feel you in my heart every time I look at the stars. When I fly over the ocean. I hear you in the wind. It’s like you complete a part of my soul that I didn’t even know was missing. Lena, I flew across the galaxy, with no hope and only doubts and I found a whole new family on this planet… but it was only when I found you that I realised I hadn’t lost my home. It was with you all along. And if I could I would give you a piece of my eternal soul, so you could also feel the way I do. And I’m so sorry that it took me so long to realise just how much you mean to me, but today, tonight… it’s like a veil has been lifted from my eyes and all I see is you. I was so terrified to let go and fall, that only know I realised I had been lost in your heart since the very moment I first met you. You’ve made me realise more about who I am than anyone else I’ve ever met. You motivate me; you inspire me…. I feel safe with you.“

 

I could hear both of their hearts beating, in sync with each other once more.

 

“I love you.”

 

A single tear slipped Lena’s cheek, and Kara reached out to catch it as it fell.

 

“And I’m sorry if all of this is too much because I know there are so many things that are broken between us that we… I need to fix. But I love you, Lena Luthor. And that’s no lie. You are the most amazing woman I’ve ever met, and you deserve every happiness. Nothing but happiness. So if you want me to go, if you don’t want to talk to me again, I’ll respect your wishes…. But if you’ll let me, Lena Luthor, I’ll do everything in my power to spend my life making you happy.”

 

Somehow I knew that people didn't get many moments like this in life: moments when you knew, without any doubt, that you were alive, when you felt the air in the atmosphere, the world seeming to sigh collectively, and the wet grass ripple on the hills next to the city, bending beneath lovers feet and the cotton on their skin; moments when you were entirely in the present, when neither the past nor the future mattered. I tried to slow my thoughts, hoping somehow to make this moment last forever.

 

Watching silently was harder than it had ever been before because I could see the change in the between them… the difference in my girls themselves. My girl in the pod I could no longer find in my mind. She was still there, but there like a ghost, a will o' the wisp. Not long ago she burned--her heart burned--in my mind like silver fire. And my Girl with the book was silent in my mind too, seeming to absorb all the pouring of words from the other in a silence quieter than the far reaches of space.

 

And there wasn’t a flicker of light between them. 

 

Kara shuffled backwards, stood to her feet and blushed, and I wished that with all my powers I could scream out without destroying the space-time continuum. Kiss, you fools I would have said. The passion between you is enough to fuel a romantic poet for the next thousand years. I haven’t broken the rule of the universe, risking my own existence, just for this to be the end. 

 

There has to be something more.

 

And then... the whole room seemed to be bathed in white and glowing light.

 

Once there was a theory on Krypton, there was such a thing as destiny. I never believed it; eons spent watching the worlds of mortals crumble and fall, science taking precedence over all and fact reigning supreme. But what do I know of how the world works? The material place is not all there is… what mysteries lie beyond the reach of even my senses? At the root of time and matter and existence, where thoughts from reality this universe is only one of an infinite number. Somewhere my siblings radiated life and benevolence, and others through the same inaction were full of malice and hunger. Dark and light beings with powers older than time, just like myself… But beyond even that, the explanations for the two souls encased in their soul-light may be explained…. But I didn’t need it to be taught to know what I did was the right thing. 

 

These two belonged together. 

 

Through a beat of time, Lena reached forward with her hand and traced Kara’s cheek, the same way she had done to her photo a week before.

 

“I thought I lost you forever….”

 

“Never.”

 

And suddenly the whole universe was bathed in ahalo of light.

 

* * *

 

“Oh, little one. Big mistake. You know what happens now.”

 

I turned to see my older sibling, watching me with a blank expression.

 

I swallowed hard because I knew what was about to happen next.

 

“It’ll be worth it,” I said flatly.

 

They turned from me, to look at my two girls embracing.

 

“You’d give up eternal life, for two mortals?” They said, disbelieving.

 

Uncomprehending.

 

“Death gives life meaning,” I answered in reply, feeling lighter than I ever had before. “How can anything of value be achieved without knowing your days are numbered. It’s what makes these mortals so much more important than us. We may have the powers of gods, but what lives are we living. They feel everything, and they know their time is short, yet they still live. They paint and write and dance and build and cook and love and cry. And it all means so much more because they will eventually die.” 

 

I turned to look at them and smiled sadly.

 

“One day, I hope you realise that. For your own sake. They are not lesser than us, and we are not lesser than them.”

 

They just stared at my frowning, and I knew at that moment they would never understand. They would never want to follow.

 

“I will not miss you, little one.”

 

I shrugged and smiled.  


 

“Of that, I had no doubt.”

 

They shook their head and let out a deep sigh.

 

“I am to offer you a choice…. If it were up to me…”

 

I frowned at that.

 

“What choice?”

 

They shook their head, clearly annoyed.

 

“A mortal life. Just one, like these people you adore. Just one. That, or instant oblivion. If I were you, I’d spare myself the pain and boredom. But it’s up to you. What do you choose?”

 

My eyes widened.

 

That was when everything changed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did we think? Let me know in the comments below, I love to read them and respond to all of you :)


	4. The End of the Start

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ta da!

So there you have it, the end of my grand tale. Something few will ever experience the likes of again. I guess some people might wonder why I had been happy enough to retire into this final mortal life without complaint, after everything I had seen and done. But adventures are all very well in their place, but there's a lot to be said for regular meals and freedom from pain.

 

And maybe to give up the ownership of an entire universe without a fight, it might seem silly to some. But it's not hard to own something. Or everything. You just have to know that it's yours, and then be willing to let it go.

 

And I never really owned it, I didn’t view it’s infinite reaches an unending edge as mine, not like my sibling and parents had. Time isn’t something you can hold, and it passes without your permission either way. To enter into a mortal life for the sake of finally embracing a finishing paint was more potent than any choice I had ever made before. 

 

And by some merciful design, my mortal life was spent watching the two mortals who had taught me that destiny could exist. I got to watch them survive even through dull eyes, a colour around them that I could never forget.

 

They kissed for the first time in the cold spring rain, though neither one of them now knew that it was raining. Kara's heart pounded in her chest as if it was not big enough to contain all the joy that it held. She opened her eyes as he kissed Lena, who was glowing as bright as a star. Her deep green eyes stared back into Kara’s, and in her eyes, I saw that she could see no parting from her.

 

They would look at me and smile then, laughing as we ran and played as the rain fell from the sky.

 

I was the first one to know that there was another life growing between us. Call it a feeling, or some lingering sense from who I used to be. For although my life was now smaller than it had ever been before, it was almost infinitely larger in all ways possible. 

 

It was only once Kara told Lena that she was, in fact, pregnant, and all the squeals and excess joy died that I finally had time to feel happy and content, listening to the fluttering heartbeat that was growing stronger with every passing day. 

 

We would take a long walk in the forest together. The autumn twilight turned into deep and early night as we walked. And I could smell the distant winter on the air--a mixture of night-mist and crisp darkness and the tang of fallen leaves.

 

And at night I could look up into the sky and wonder once more at the journey and story of my life. For few immortals have seen the stars as I saw them then - cities and towns cast too much light into the night - but, from the balcony of Kara and Lena’s shared apartment, the stars were laid out like worlds or like ideas, uncountable as the trees in a forest or the leaves on a tree.

 

And my mind would wander in a rush, trying to encapsulate every feeling and thought I’d ever had, trying to fold the pages of my life into one final book. Time just seemed to get faster and faster, ever since they had come to understand me and take me home with them that first night. Life seemed to exist at a rate where everything became desperate and agonisingly slow all at once.

 

It wasn’t long before a new life existed with us, adding a new colourful mixture of light through its screams and laughter. That first week I hadn’t managed any sleep at all, none of us had until I finally pushed open the door to the nursery and slept with the baby. It quieted down after that, waking up alongside me when the girl in the pod found us the next morning. 

 

Soon enough, the girl was walking and talking and running and flying, faster and faster as life sped around us. And the seconds, minutes and years that passed. My brain was not slowing, even as I grew more tired. My ears were dulling, and my senses were dropping. And my mind… it had trouble staying focused, instead directing into planes of reality I remembered at the start of everything. 

 

It’s a strange place, The Imagination. A lot of fun by day, when there are all sorts of reassuring and familiar sights and people around. But it’s scary, and cold at night, and places you knew perfectly well by daylight aren’t the same after the sun’s gone down. You can get lost easily there, and some people never find their way back. You can hear a few of them when the ghost moon shines, and the wind’s in the right direction. They scream for a while, and then they stop. And in the silence, you hear something else: the sound of something large and quiet, tentatively beginning to feed... The imagination is a dangerous place, after all, and you can always use a guide to the territory.

 

But that’s what I had, a new family that would guide me back to myself with easy laughs and calls of my name.

 

I could still see the bubble of love and life I had been included in, watching as Kara held a bluebell up to the light; and Lena could not but observe that the colour of sunlight glittering through the purple crystal was inferior in both hue and shade to that of her eyes.

 

I could see them all, in the life they had built together. 

 

But it could not last forever, not for me most of all. For Time, the thief eventually takes all things into his dusty storehouse, but we were happy, as these things go, for a long while. And it was left to me to drowse with my head on the lap of a little girl, as she stroked my head and whispered to me what a good dog I was. I wished I could tell her all I knew of life, of all that I had seen, but in the end, it didn’t matter.

 

Because life was full of mysterious that she needed to discover for herself, but the answers were out there for her to find. The questions of the universe would never be solved by immortal beings floating through space, to alone and empty to risk touching the fragility of mortal life. 

 

It would be answered by brilliant, fantastic, glowing mortals with bond-like golden fire and children with the whole world in their eyes.

 

People who wouldn’t need to diminish the beautiful, complex, wonderfully unfathomable, natural world. Something that would never fail to hold their attention. 

 

For now, I could finally see it through their eyes. 

 

I am a tiny, insignificant, ignorant bit of carbon. I have one life, and it is short and unimportant, but thank to recent medical advances I get to live twice as long and safely, and happily in the arms and hearts of a family. Twice as long to live this final life of mine. Twice as long to stop and smell the world. To go on walks and play joyfully freeing games of catch. 

 

All this beautifully short and defined life, with one sole purpose of making my chosen family happy. To make the people who had so captured my attention with their destined love that I never thought should have existed, laugh at least once a day. To watch the roots of life, they were creating together grow into the ground and hold firm, creating ripples through time that would forever affect the world.

 

And I imagined that I could see the very faces of the stars; pale, they were, and smiling gently, as if they had spent so much time above the world, watching the scrambling and the joy and the pain of the people below them, that they could not help being amused every time another little human believed itself the centre of its world, as each of them does.

 

My job now, my life’s final dedication, was remaining by their sides no matter what. Offering them love and kindness and a soft coat to cry into, even after the last trip to the vet revealed that the cancer was incurable. It wasn’t my job to regret my choice in any way, because I would do it all again.

 

I could still see it in my mind. Every single second I had watched them together. The unknown feeling that I now knew as love in my chest. Love at watching their passion. At watching the bond between them. Because now I knew what it was, it made as much sense as breathing.

 

The chaotic mess of a universe, all crammed into two hearts joined across the slow dancing and infinite stars, for I knew now that the Kryptonians had been right, and that soulmates do exist. 

 

Just sometimes you’ve got to look a little harder to find yours.

 

My final breaths were happy. I was sleeping on the floor at the foot of my girls’ bed and falling slowly into a deeper dream than I’d ever felt. Death had come in the night, and she whispered in my ear. And with a final beat of my heart, I was gone.

 

And an April breeze ran across the meadows of the earth, stirring the bushes and the trees in one long chilly sigh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you thought in the comments! I love to read them :)


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